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THE BIRTH 0/ AMERICA 



THE BIRTH 
of AMERICA 

AN HISTORICAL DRAMA 
IN THREE ACTS 

BY 

Matthew Page Andrews 

Author of "A merican History and Government,^ ' 

**The American'' s Creed and Its Meaning,^' 

"yl Heritage of Freedom,''^ etc. 



BALTIMORE 

The Norman, Remington Co. 
1920 



COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE NORMAN, REMINGTON CO. 

DRAMATIC RIGHTS CONTROLLED 

BY 

MATTHEW PAGE ANDREWS 



CAUTION 

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or anything of such character approximating a performance. 



Act of Congress, March 4, 1909: 
Section 28 

"That any person ivho ivilfully or for profit shall infringe 
any copyright secured by this act, or luho shall knowingly 
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OEC 28 i920 
^CI.A605570 



^ 



5 APOLOGIA 

Having missed ancestral participation in the 
earliest proceedings of both the first colonies 
through tardiness in the arrival of John Page 
in the Virginia of the sixteen-forties, together 
with a like delinquency in the embarkation of 
John Andrews for Massachusetts in the sixteen- 
fifties, the writer humbly yields seniority to his 
betters and respectfully dedicates the following 
lines to the descendants of the courageous men 
and women who, in the dawn of the seventeenth 
century, first established the beginnings of "a 
new nation" under the Assembly at Jamestown 
and the Compact at Plymouth, brother enter- 
prises grounded on the inalienable rights of 
man. 



The Birth of America 



FOREWORD 

In "The Birth of America" the characters are 
taken from history and their sayings are based on actual 
events of the day. In not a few instances these sayings 
are in the exact words of their utterances three hundred 
and more years ago. 

The verification of this statement may be had 
through consulting the documents gathered and pub- 
lished by Alexander Brown in his "Genesis of the 
United States." In very brief fashion, also, these mat- 
ters are set forth in the author's "A Heritage of Free- 
dom" ; and the reader may find a fuller discussion from 
the dramatic and literary viewpoint in Professor 
Charles Mills Gayley's "Shakespeare and the Foun- 
ders of Liberty in America," — both the last-named 
volumes appearing from the press almost simultane- 
ously and wholly without collaboration on the part of 
their writers. 

To the public, perhaps, the matter of the most lively 
interest is the appearance of Shakespeare in the play 
and the evidence of his real interest in, and intimate 
knowledge of, the first colonization in 
Sandys, America. It was both natural and easy 

Southampton, for Shakespeare to take an interest in 
and the. great enterprise of the London Com- 

Shakespeare pany, the real founders of the Plymouth 
settlement as well as that at James- 
town. Among them he counted many of his best 
patrons, of whom one was Henry Wriothesley, third 
Earl of Southampton, the able and trusted associate of 
Sir Edwin Sandys. To Southampton, Shakespeare, 
with every evidence of admiration and affection, had 
dedicated his early verse. 



Historical Introduction 



From one of these twain the great dramatist must 
have received in confidence certain details about the 
wreck on the Bermudas of the Charter Ship of Gov- 
ernor Gates and Admiral Somers, of 
Lady Elizabeth their rescue and ultimate arrival at 
Howard Jamestown after all had, for many 

months, been given up for lost. 
These details were contained in a "Letter to an Excel- 
lent Lady," which also contained important and con- 
fidential information of the state of affairs in the first 
colony. Had this letter reached the king at that time, 
it would most likely have caused him to assume abso- 
lute control of the colony. In The Tempest, Shakes- 
peare uses a number of expressions which, apparently, 
he could have got from no other source than from 
this letter. The letter was not published until 1625, 
and The Tempest was first put on the stage in the 
fall of 161 1.* 

The selection of Lady Elizabeth Howard as the 
"Excellent Lady," to whom the letter is addressed, is 
based on the well-founded conjecture of Professor Gay- 
ley. She was the widow of one of the 
Sir Francis founders of the Jamestown enterprise 
Bacon and the daughter-in-law of another. 

Moreover, she was the near neighbor of 
the writer of the letter, William Strachey. It was 
most natural for her to submit the letter to Sir Edwin 
Sandys or to the Earl of Southampton. Although 
Sandys planned and wrote the adroitly worded char- 
ters of Virginia, which gradually led up to the grant 
of self-government to the colonists, the lawyers who 



*"The letter was always in the keeping of those vitally 
concerned until Purchas got hold of it. That Shakespeare 
was allowed to read it and to use certain of its materials 
for a play, as with just discrimination and due discretion 
he did, is illustrative of the closeness of his intimacy with 
the patriot leaders of the Virginia enterprise." — Gayley: 
Shakespeare and the Founders of Liberty in America. 



Historical Introduction xi 

prepared the technical terminology of these documents 
for the signature of James I were Sir Francis Bacon 
and Sir Henry Hobart.f 

The correspondence of Ambassador Zuniga and of 
his successors, Velasco and Count Gondomar, is full 
of urgent appeals for the extermination of the English 
settlement in Virginia. These emissaries of 
Spanish Philip III employed spies not only to watch 
Plots the proceedings of the London Company in 
England, but to investigate the plans of the 
colonists in America, Gondomar, in particular, assured 
James I that Sir Edwin Sandys and his associates of 
the Virginia Company in London, were plotting to 
overthrow, in the New World, at least, the doctrine 
of the divine right of kings, with a view to creating 
self-government by the people. He warned James that 
their design was not so much to search for gold and to 
plant tobacco as to take away the government from 
the King and place it in the power of the people. Re- 
ferring to Sir Edwin Sandys and his patriot party. 



fMichael Drayton, fellow-poet and friend of Shakespeare, 
inscribed the first verses dedicated to the English colonists 
in America. These verses, possibly inspired or suggested 
by Southampton, were written in honor of the departure of 
the Sarah Constant, the Goodspeed, and the Discovery, bear- 
ing the first permanent English settlers to American 
shores. 

You brave heroique minds, 
Worthy your countries name, 
That honour still pursue, 
Goe, and subdue, 
Whilst lovt'ring hinds 

Lurk here at home with shame. . . . 

And in regions farre. 

Such heroes bring yee foorth 
As those from whom we came; 
And plant our name 
Under that starre 

Not knowne unto our north. 



xii Historical Introduction 

Gondomar told the King, "That though they might 
have a fair pretence for their meetings, yet he would 
find in the end that the Virginia Court in London 
ufould prove a seminary for a seditious Parliament." 

It is natural to represent Southampton in the role 
of sending a message to Shakespeare; it is natural for 
him, as the dramatist's patron, to suggest the writing 

of The Tempest; and it is equally 
The O riff in of natural for Sandys to suggest that 
"The Tempest" Shakespeare should bring with him 

"a new recruit for Virginia." John 
Jefferson was then probably planning for his emigra- 
tion to the new settlement, which he undertook shortly 
thereafter. It was natural, also, for Shakespeare to 
be acquainted with Lawrence Washington, the "master 
of Sulgrave Manor," who was related by marriage 
to Sandys. The romantic story of the wreck off the 
"still-vex't Bermoothes" is historical and is repro- 
duced in some detail in the play. The imagination is 
free to play as it will upon the significance of Shakes- 
peare's conceptions in The Tempest, both as to char- 
acters and plot. 

Captain John Smith's part as the officially licensed 
historian of James I is brought out. In his accounts, 
he doubtless satisfied his royal master by belittling the 

character of the patriot participants 
Smith's Part in in the planning of political liberty, 
Beclouding the both in the London Company and at 
Early History Jamestown. Nor did he spare the 
of America Pilgrims in his sweeping depreciation 

of his contemporaries. Because the 
Pilgrims refused his proffered guidance. Smith wrote 
afterwards of them as follows: "Some hundred of 
your Brownists of England, Amsterdam, and Leyden, 
went to New Plimouth, whose humorous ignorances 
caused them, for more than a year to endure a wonder- 
ful deal of misery, with an infinite patience ; saying my 



Historical Introduction xlil 

books and maps were much better cheap [cheaper] 
than my self to teach them. . . . Such humorists will 
never believe well, till they be beaten with their own 
rod." The first colonists at Jamestown have suffered 
in historical repute and perspective for upwards of 
three centuries because of Smith's misrepresentations, 
and the Pilgrims must have shared their fate but for 
their good fortune in having, in Governor Bradford, 
so excellent an (uncensored) historian of their enter- 
prise. 

Stephen Hopkins affords a link between Shakes- 
peare's "Bermoothes," together with the settlement at 
James Towne, and the Pilgrim emigrants. It is com- 
paratively little known that the 
Stephen Hopkins father of Oceanus Hopkins, born 
and the Invitation on board the Mayflower, had sur- 
to the Exiles vived the storm immortalized by 

Shakespeare and had been an 
earlier emigrant to the Virginia colony. It is interest- 
ing, also, to know of Sir Edwin Sandys' active and 
long-continued efforts to "regain" the exiles in the 
Netherlands and secure for them homes and religious 
freedom in America. He began these efforts at about 
the time of the opening of the first Act, and persisted 
in them to the time he was removed from control of 
the London Company by order of the King. 

In the last two Acts, all the characters represented 
are historical except Croatan, — "a convenient con- 
ceit" — and Kanawha; so, in effect, at least, are the 
spoken parts and the happen- 
Historical Basis ings by them brought out. 

for the Jamestown Many of the phrases used are 

and the Plymouth verbatim reproductions of 

Scenes and Characters the original records or of the 
sayings of the characters rep- 
resented; e. g., Sandys' reference to government "by 
consente"; Martin's speech about his special rights; 



xiv Historical Introduction 

the letter from Sir William Newce; Winslow's ref- 
erence to "one inch of hell," and Bradford's rejoinder 
about Seneca and his inference as to sea-sickness. 

Even comparatively little-known characters like Sec- 
retary Pory and Mistress Cicely Jordan are historical 
figures. Mistresses Jordan and Madison figured in 
the first breach of promise suit brought up in the New 
World. Captain Jordan, of "Jordan's Journey," was 
killed (as were most of the characters represented in 
Act II, Scene II) in the great Indian massacre follow- 
ing the building of the "College at Henricus," — the 
"killing" foretold by Kanawha and the convert 
Chanco. Mistress Cicely became thereafter the "fas- 
cinating widow" of the colony and was much sought 
after. She ultimately accepted the offer of a pastor in 
the colony, but "threw him over" for what seemed to 
her a more likely match. The minister was not to be 
set aside so easily, however, and brought suit. Mis- 
tress Madison was summoned as a witness in the case. 

In the last Act, the scenes and characters are so 
well known in American history, thanks to Bradford 
and other historians in sympathy with the aims of the 
New England colonists, that little comment is needed ; 
only, in this play, the historical connection between 
the Pilgrims and the great leaders of the Elizabethan 
age is, perhaps, for the first time portrayed. 

The idea of a special drama to be presented in con- 
nection with the Pilgrim Tercentenary was indirectly 
brought to the attention of the author by the Reverend 
Harold N. Arrowsmith. It was modified and ex- 
panded in its conception by reason of a suggestion of 
President Frank J. Goodnow, of the Johns Hopkins 
University, in order to embrace the three hundred and 
first anniversary of the Legislative Assembly of Vir- 
ginia, which, in 19 19, the nation had seemingly over- 
looked. Cordial recommendations for the further ex- 
pansion of the play were then made by Mrs. Florence 



Historical Introduction xv 

Lewis Speare, charter member of the "47 Workshop" 
Theatre of Harvard University, by vi^hom it was sub- 
sequently arranged for the stage and produced. The 
author would also express appreciation for the read- 
ings of Dr. James W. Bright, Professor of English 
Literature; of Dean John H. Latane, Professor of 
American History at the Johns Hopkins University; 
and of the generous approval of Julian Street, play- 
wright and author. 

M. P. A. 



DRAMATIS PERSONAE 

ACT I 

Sir Edwin Sandys, 

Leading Founder of Liberty in America 
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, 

Associate of Sandys and early patron of Shakespeare 
Sir Francis Bacon, 
Counsel at Court in preparing the colonial charters for 

the signature of the King 
William Shakespeare 

John Jefferson Ancestor of Thomas Jefferson 

Stephen Hopkins, 

Survivor of the Tempest, sojourner at Jamestown, and 

subsequently father of Oceanus Hopkins, 

born on board the "Mayflower" 

Lady Sandys Wife to Sir Edwin 

Lady Elizabeth Howard, 

Widow of Theophilus Howard 

Jane Burras Maid to Lady Sandys 

Manservant 

ACT H— Scene I 

Chanco Indian convert in Virginia 

Powhatan Indian chief 

Opechancanough Brother to Powhatan 

Croatan Old Indian woman 

Kanawha Indian maiden 

Other Indians: warriors and women 



The Birth of America 



Scene II 

Captain William Powell First settler 

Captain Francis West, 

First settler and son to Lord De La JVarr 
Captain Samuel Jordan^ of "Jordan's Journey" 
Isaac Madison 
John Jefferson 
Rev. Richard Buck 
John Pory, 

Secretary-Speaker of the House of Burgesses, former 
member of Parliament from Bridgewater, 
England 
John Rolfe 
Nathaniel Powell 

Ensign R.o^s.n<iGn am. Nephew to Governor Yeardley 
Captain John Martin 

Patrick Gookin Soldier 

Chanco, with other Indian converts 
Mistress Cicely Jordan. . .Wife to Samuel Jordan 
Mistress Mary Madison . Wife to Isaac Madison 
Indian in background 

ACT III 

William Bradford Historian of the Pilgrims 

John Carver First Governor of the Pilgrims 

John Alden 
Edward Win slow 
Captain Miles Standish 

William Brewster Spiritual leader 

Stephen Hopkins 

Mistress Bradford Wife to William Bradford 

Mistress Elizabeth Hopkins, 

Wife to Stephen Hopkins 
Priscilla Mullens 
Other Pilgrims, both men and women 



PROLOGUE 

Proclaimed by Clio, Muse of History, or by a 
"Herald" 

(Spoken slowly, intensively) 

Alexander conquered his little world, and 
died, and left us a pretty story. 

Caesar won a larger world, and, dying, left 
a longer story, with thoughts of imperial 
power. 

Lastly, Napoleon overran many lands and 
threatened the Earth. But the Empire of 
Napoleon fell in pieces ere himself was dead. 

These three. Theirs was a kingdom of the 
flesh; and, like all flesh, it ran its span and 
perished. 

Hereupon, we purpose setting forth the 
greater triumph of one who, on a firm and 
final foundation, built a Kingdom of the 
Mind. 

His is the immortal soul to establish the 
immortal principle that self-government may 



The Birth of America 



be added to self-control, and with it man's right 
to life, liberty, and freedom of conscience. 

Confronted and hedged about in the Old 
World by the "divine right of kings," this 
Prophet of Progress planned for the New 
World the Ideal of a "free -popular State," 
whose inhabitants should have "no Govern- 
ment putt upon them except by their own con" 
sente." 

This Ideal has spread from a single settle- 
ment to many States. The many are merged 
in one, and popular government is extended 
from sea to sea. 

Its appeal has caught the imagination of mil- 
lions in the older nations and its spirit is spread- 
ing over the Earth. 

Under its banner, freedom and liberty go 
marching on — and the end is not yet. 

Behold, then, the portrayal of the beginnings 
of this New Order: 

The Founding of Liberty in America 
under the guiding hand of Edwin Sandys, 
patriot, scholar, philosopher, statesman, sage, 
and friend of man. 



THE BIRTH e?/ AMERICA 



ACT I 

Scene I 

Drawing room in the London house of Sir 
Edwin Sandys, Founder of Liberty in America. 
Time: Morning in September, 1610, subse- 
quently to the receipt of news from Virginia 
that the Charter Ship, the "Sea-Venture," with 
Governor Sir Thomas Gates and Admiral 
Somers, had been wrecked of the Bermudas, 
but that "all hands" had survived the storm 
and had arrived, "after many months," at 
James Towne. 

Curtain rises upon Lady Sandys and her 
friend, Elizabeth Howard {daughter of George 
Hume, Earl of Dunbar, and widow of Baron 
Theophilus Howard, of Essex, who, with his 
father, Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, was a liberal 
subscriber to the colonial enterprise) ; also, 
Jane Burras, maid to Lady Sandys and sister 



The Birth of America 



of Anne Burras Laydon, who, as maid to Mrs. 
Forest, was the first Englishwoman married in 
America and the mother of Virginia Laydon, 
the first child horn at Jamestown. Windows 
are open. From east window an arch may be 
seen with inscription thereon. Within, table 
and writing desk; shelves of books; a few large 
pictures, among which is a recently done por- 
trait of the master of the house. The ladies 
are evidently expecting visitors and are inter- 
ested in overseeing the last touches put on the 
table, desk, etc., with which the maid is busying 
herself. 

Jane: Anst ye talk of what America will be, 
how do the people fare with wild beasts, wild 
woods, and wilder salvages? 

Lady Sandys: They are brave men that dare 
a thousand leagues of sea and the red and 
bloody-minded Indians 1 

Lady Howard: And even braver women 1 
Wouldst thou hazard this adventure, Jane? 

Jane: My sister has ventured it, ma'am. 

Lady Howard: 'Tis said that scarce had Mis- 
tress Forest stepped ashore, when she lost her 
maid, thy sister, to worthy John Laydon. 

Lady Sandys: Ay, if the whole story be told, 
she chose him from no less than seven suitors 1 



The Birth of America 



Jane: One don't often see the likes o' that 
in Old England, ma'am ! 

Lady Howard: {Musingly) 'Tis said that 
single men are very lonely over there. {Pause) 
For aught we know about the rest, six suitors 
may yet be single. {To Lady Sandys) Sir Ed- 
win has urged others to encourage women set- 
tlers. His good preachings may be put in prac- 
tice here at home ! 

Jane: {To Lady Sandys) I'd venture the 
v'yage with but 'alf a chance, ma'am, I'm sure, 
ma'am, my sister would give me a home and 
welcome. I could work in service for my pass- 
age over. 

Lady Howard: — Virginia Laydon, the first 
child born of English parentage at James 
Towne — may she live long and happily I 

Jane: {To Lady Sandys) — ^An' then, I'd 
want to save the little darlin' from those seal- 
pin' salvages. She is nigh one year old, ma'am. 
{Starts to go.) 

Lady Sandys: But stop a moment. Have you 
not heard that there are scores of Indian women 
in America to be had for the asking? 

Jane: Have no fear of thim, ma'am, with 
their haythen paint and feathers. My brother 
William, than whom there be no bolder sailor, 



8 The Birth of America 

says the Spaniard may have them ; but an Eng- 
lishman, — be he Celt or Saxon, holds true to 
race and lineage. (Exit.) 

Lady Howard: Canst thou not picture this 
land of wonders — and the "new nation" fore- 
told by gallant Raleigh? Jane is right about 
our race and people. 'Tis born in the blood. 
But we must make Christians of these salvages. 

Lady Sandys: That is a chief est part of our 
purpose. Great things are astir in these our 
days. 

Lady Howard: Yes, and great men. {Stand- 
ing before it, she gazes at Sir Edwin's portrait.) 
My noble husband oft has told me that in Sir 
Edwin England held the master statesman of 
our age and times — a prophet and builder of 
a new order. 

Lady Sandys : ( Goes over and gratefully em- 
braces Lady Howard) My instincts have ever 
made me know that my husband is great among 
men; yet, — it gives me joy to hear from the 
mouths of others what I have always felt is true. 
Thy husband was most generous in this Vir- 
ginia enterprise. So was his noble father, the 
Earl of Suffolk. 

Lady Howard: The patriot adventurers of 
our London Company have suffered three long 



The Birth of America 



years of steady loss in the Virginia enterprise — 
enough and more to break the will of lesser 
souls. 

Lady Sandys: And we are like to suffer even 
greater losses for thrice as long. Those who 
know our higher purpose look for no sordid 
gains from this great emprise. 

Lady Howard: {With intense fervor of con- 
viction) When lesser souls have faltered, Sir 
Edwin has been a constant star to guide and 
cheer. I know that he has hid his fears for our 
daring venture — fear of devastating disease 
in fever-stricken James Towne; fear of the 
interference of the King; fear of the news, with 
every boat, of fatal Indian stratagem or massa- 
cre; fear of Spanish spies, and traitors here, — 
nay, fear of fear itself with Englishmen at 
home. In very truth, thy husband has borne a 
front unflinching 'gainst the well-considered loss 
of everything that man holds dear — the loss of 
home and of fortune, • by confiscation of the 
King; the loss of his proper liberty; and of life 
itself. Brute courage is a common attribute. 
With that men are endowed as if by nature ; so 
the lower animals; but faith, with the courage 
to endure such things as these, is granted to 
but few. Founded on right, 'tis the calm 



lo The Birth of America 

courage of firm resolve when others doubt, 
and the courage to bear an equal mien in 
Triumph or Disaster, Sir Edwin is a noble 
man who walks with kings, nor loses sight and 
touch with common men. In him is an union 
of all that's fine and free in our blood of inter- 
mingled Celt and Saxon. 

Lady Sandys: {Plainly thrilled by the exalted 
fervor of Lady Howard) Elizabeth, thou art 
a true daughter of Hume and Howard; thy 
speech breathes the spirit of thy generous 
Theophilus, and thy thoughts are inspired by a 
constant contemplation of a noble purpose. 
Reflected in thee are the hopes and fears of the 
greatest enterprise ere planned to benefit ages 
still to come, — and nations yet to be. 

Lady Howard: I know thou hast Sir Edwin's 
amplest confidence. He has told thee of my 
letter from Virginia 

Lady Sandys: — ^Addressed to "An Excel- 
lent Lady" by thy former neighbor, Master 
William Strachey? 

Lady Howard: Yes, and now thou knowest 
Aat which, if further carried, would change the 
course of history and give us over to the power 
of Spain. 

Lady Sandys: And are there not women in 



The Birth of America i i 

the world with whom secrets are as safe as 
with any man? 

Lady Howard: Where they touch home and 
hearth, husband and children. — Thine own 
house is not safe. When others have kept their 
peace thy husband has freely spoke his mind in 
Parliament concerning the threatened rights of 
Englishmen. 

Lady Sandys: Have kept their peace, or 
worse ! 

Lady Howard: I know it. Had I, too, not 
been counted worthy of my husband's confi- 
dence, the main hope of the Virginia enterprise 
would even now be snuffed out like a candle 

Lady Sandys : — I long to hear 1 I knew 
something of moment brought thee here from 
thy sweet Essex downs. 

Lady Howard: But recently I was honored 
by a visit from Lady Zuniga, wife of his Ex- 
cellency, the Ambassador of Spain, who thought 
that by some chance 

Lady Sandys: — She would happen there 
upon letters from Virginia ? 

Lady Howard: Thou hast said it — but, con- 
trariwise, thy innocent Elizabeth, upon return- 
ing the gracious visit of her Ladyship, guile- 



12 The Birth of America 

lessly happened upon n plan the Spaniards have 
devised for spying out the colony. 

Lady Sandys: And what else? thou innocent 
child! kinswoman of that Howard of Effing- 
ham who smote the Great Armada 1 

Lady Howard: Oh, I told her ladyship many 
things. 

Lady Sandys: Many things about the colony? 

Lady Howard: Many things from a simple 
Englishwoman, which I wot not will much de- 
ceive His Majesty of Spain should they reach 
his earl 

{Enter Jane) 

Jane: The master has come and with him are 
two gentlemen. (Exit.) 

Lady Sandys: {To Lady Howard) — The 
Earl of Southampton and Sir Francis Bacon. 

Lady Howard: Should the mantle of thy 
prophet-husband fall upon another, I pray it 
will be the Earl. 

Lady Sandys: And my Lord Bacon? 

Lady Howard: Oh, he is a courtier first and 
a patriot whilst 'tis safe. 

{Enter Sandys, Bacon, and Henry 
Wriothesley, Earl of Southamp- 
ton, friend and early patron of 
Shakespeare) 



I 



The Birth of America 13 

Lady Sandys: {To Bacon and Southampton) 
You are welcome. 

Bacon: The fame of thy hospitality has 
spread abroad and there gather here the choic- 
est spirits of these times. 

Lady Sandys: I but do my little part to help 
on a new age. My house is honored by their 
presence. I know but little of the problems of 
State. With them I dare not meddle, but every 
woman knows that a new Britannia is being 
born across the seas. 

Sandys: My love, the Earl {turning to South- 
ampton) has sent word to Master William 
Shakespeare to join us here to-day; whilst I, in 
turn, have expressed the hope that he bring at 
least one new recruit for America. 

Lady Howard: The stirring verse of 
Michael Drayton still echoes through the land. 

Lady Sandys: We'll leave them to their de- 
liberations. ( To Lady Howard) Come, let me 
show thee my wonderful fowl from America. 
All England will some day be smoking our Vir- 
ginia weed and feasting upon these new birds. 
Save Her Majesty, the Queen, I am the first 
woman in England to have served a turkey. I 
shall be the first to breed them here. 



14 The Birth of America 

{Exeunt Lady Sandys and Lady Howard 
at right. Enter JVilliam Shakespeare 
and John Jefferson, — an^cestor of 
Thomas Jefferson — at left). 

Sandys: Welcome, Master Shakespeare and 
Master Jefferson. 

Southampton: {To, Shakespeare) Thrice 
welcome, thou master player. What fresh 
characters hast thou conjured back to earth of 
late? 

Shakespeare: Many thanks for thy greeting, 
my Lord. "Master Shakespeare" I owe by our 
good English right and custom. "Master play- 
er," if I be one, / owe wholly to thy earliest aid 
and patronage. 

Southampton: I count it an high honor that 
thy verse should be dedicate to me. Thy genius 
is thine own and I, — I but subscribed to the 
means that set it forth. 

Shakespeare: My Lords, what news have you 
from Virginia? There are as many rumors on 
the street as there are sailors in London town. 

Southampton: In part, the news is wonderful. 

Sandys: Far better than we had hoped for. 

Bacon: The Charter is safe at James Towne 
and those aboard the Sea-Venture^ who for 



The Birth of America 15 

twelve months and more we in England had 
given up for lost ! 

Jefferson: Admiral Somers, Governor Gates, 
and all their gallant company? 

Southampton: All's well that ends well. They 
are safe. 

Shakespeare: And their good ship, the Sea- 
Venturef 

Southampton: The mighty tempest of last 
June a year tossed the Venture on an island of 
the New Indies. 

Sandys: "Bermoothes," as the sailors call it. 
When the ship struck its rockbound coast, all 
hands were scattered in the terrible darkness 
of the storm. Each group thought their fellows 
drowned and bewailed their loss 'til chance 
wandering brought them together with every 
soul on board saved from the waves. 

Jefferson: The sailors say that there has been 
no fiercer storm at sea than this; that strange 
lights flashed from mast to mast and spirits 
talked of thrall and free. 

Sandys: The storm was truly dreadful, but 
now a good Providence has become, in the 
tongue of the sailors, witchcraft, magic, sor- 
cery I 

Southampton: A fitting subject for Master 



1 6 The Birth of America 

Shakespeare, — a miraculous rescue from the 
vasty deep, — a smack and touch of good and 
evil spirits, witchcraft and the like, fit to stir 
the fancies of men. 

Shakespeare: {Aside) A tempest, — the 
Charter ship wrecked on strange island shores, 
— the crew lost and found again. Miraculous 
indeed! {Aloud) How came at last the Gover- 
nor and his following to Virginia ? 

Sandys: No whit disheartened, my Lord Ad- 
miral caused to be built two ships of cedar 
wood, naming them the Patience and the Deliv- 
erance, and after eleven months all arrived 
safe at James Towne. 

Bacon: The loss of the Charter would have 
been more grievous than the loss of the ship and 
settlers. We may not have got another such 
signature from His Majesty; but our good 
friend Jefferson, and many other such daring 
Englishmen do freely offer themselves a new 
supply on behalf of our Great Experiment. 

Jefferson: I am much in spirit by reason of 
these glad tidings. So soon as I set my affairs 
in order, I shall turn my face towards this brave 
New World. It is whispered by those who live 
under the shadow of a despot here that in this 
new land men really shall be free. 



The Birth of America 17 

Sandys: 'Tis a good thought; but we must 
keep our hopes and fears within our inmost 
circle. Captain Bargrave {whom I have since 
had cause to mistrust) heard me say that we are 
setting up In Virginia a free popular State, 
whose Inhabitants shall have no government put 
upon them except by their own consent. This, 
our highest aim, must be hid from His Majesty. 
We must prate to him of large returns from 
gold and silver mines, — (pause) which are 
not! {Laughter) 

Southampton: Captain Smith helped us to a 
shiphold of shining ore — "fool's gold," — It was 
a great blow to His Majesty! 

Sandys: Not to say others who had in sight 
easy gains without expense I {Laughter) 

Bacon: The recent Charter, giving powers of 
government to the London Company, points 
the way to political liberty; but His Majesty 
sees It not as yet, though the Spanish minister 
and his spies have hinted darkly of plots and 
treasons afloat against the divine right of kings. 

Sandys: {Addressing all) We are much In 
debt to the skill of Sir Francis in making our 
Charter ready for the signature of the King. 

Bacon: Thou mayst now draw up another 
such Charter to inclvide the still vexed Ber- 



1 8 The Birth of America 

moothes. In't we'll loudly laud His Majesty, 
but withal draw a second stroke to secure the 
rights of fellow-countrymen transplanted on 
this new and virgin soil. 

Sandys: If the truth be told, a year ago Cap- 
tain Gabriel Archer called for a Parliament in 
Virginia to protest the sovereign rule of Cap- 
tain Smith. 

Jefferson: Captain Archer died in the serv- 
ice of the settlement and merits praise from us 
in that he, with Captains Martin and Percy, 
are abused to the King by Smith and other min- 
ions of His Majesty. 

Sandys: True, Captain Martin is our most 
successful settler. In command of the Benja- 
min, he sailed the seas with Drake and rescued 
Raleigh's ill-timed colony at Roanoke. 

Southampton: And the noble Percy, the brave 
young brother of Northumberland. What did 
the bold but boastful Smith call these three? 

Sandys: "Tiffity-tafFety ne'er-do-wells!" 

{Exclamations of disapproval or dis- 
gust from all) 

Shakespeare: (Aside) "The still vexed Ber- 
moothes" — the spirit of liberty. 'Tis worth a 
play, even if it be a play on words, — an' 'twill 
please my Lord and noble patron. (Aloud to 



The Birth of America 19 

Southampton) My Lord, the story of this tem- 
pest enthralls my fancies. The wreck of the Sea- 
Venture and the building of the Deliverance. 
I'll create a new character whom I'll call Mi- 
randa. She shall symbolize America, and in 
her I'll portray my perfect woman, unspoiled 
by social arts or stratagem. 

Southampton: Set forth thy play, Master 
Shakespeare, so that new emigrants may be em- 
boldened to join those already gone. I would 
recall the lines indited by thy friend and fellow- 
player, Michael Drayton, writ in celebration of 
the first ships sailing for America 

Sandys: The Sarah Constant, the Good- 
speed, and the Discovery, three years since this 
next December. 

Shakespeare: My Lord, he spoke of "brave 
heroique minds," adjuring them "in regions 
farre, such heroes bring yee foorth as those 
from whom we came." {Rises to go.) 

Sandys: But see, my good Shakespeare, see 
that in thy play thou dost not make our purpose 
plain to stir His Majesty's jealous fears for 
royal prerogative. The land is full of Philip's 
Spanish spies, and they have the ear of the 
King. 

Southampton: Sandys is right. Set up a 



20 The Birth of America 

parable. Be not too fast in putting forth our 
prime conceits in this affair, or all will yet be 
lost. The hope of liberty hangs upon a thread. 

Shakespeare: {Aside) "A free popular 
State." I mistrust that phrase. The people 
may get overset with liberty — vacantly crying 
hey-day, freedom! freedom, hey-day! 

Sandys: Read this in strictest confidence, 
Master Shakespeare. {Hands him MS.) In 
these private letters. Secretary Strachey tells 
the story of the shipwreck and the intimate state 
at James Towne. Were this to reach the ears 
of the King, he would seize the reins of abso- 
lute control, mark us for failure, and justify his 
act. 

Southampton: At James Towne, affairs 
were critical, but De La Warr has saved the 
day. In due time, these brave Englishmen will 
manage their own affairs. Once that is done — 
English liberty never goes backward, and the 
will of kings must bend before it. With us, 
this Scottish monarch has overrid our Magna 
Charta. But in America — (Pause) 'Tis not 
so easy to reach a thousand leagues across the 
seas ! 

{Pause) 

Shakespeare: My Lord, to-day I dine with 



The Birth of America 21 

the Master of Sulgrave Manor. Have I per- 
mission to acquaint him with the general nature 
of the news from Virginia? 

Sandys: I'll vouch for Master Lawrence 
Washington. My nephew Robert has won the 
hand of his sister, Alice. 

Exeunt Shakespeare and Jeffer- 
son. 

Sandys: {Returning across room from a 
private desk) On behalf of our party in the 
London Company I have to-day writ further 
advices to certain self-exiled Englishmen in the 
Netherlands, inviting them to leave alien lands 
and join with our own stock in Virginia. 

Southampton: Thy purpose has been dis- 
cussed before. England's loss in these sturdy 
souls is Holland's gain. The times are out of 
joint, but are not proper for revolution. 'Tis 
best to bear awhile with ills we have than fly 
to those unknown. 

Sandys: Our plan points the way to regain 
these Englishmen and secure for them religious 
freedom, as we have sought political liberty at 
James Towne. I have proposed to them a 
scheme for self-government and hope to secure 
a charter from the King. 

Southampton: But will this not arouse the 



22 The Birth of America 

jealousy of His Majesty and put in jeopardy- 
all our plans? 

Bacon: {With a show of impatience at this 
new turn of affairs) His Majesty may let these 
Brownists go, but 'tis certain he'll deny their 
charter. I must be going on affairs of moment. 
I attend His Majesty's court at noon to-day. 
{Exit.) 

Sandys: We risk much in this offer to the 
dissenting exiles, but the game is worth the can- 
dle. My brother, Samuel, lessee of Scrooby 
Manor, knows these men of Scrooby well. For 
William Brewster he has a most particular 
esteem. Our friends at Court will persuade His 
Majesty and secure his consent. 

Southampton: Dost thou expect the King's 
consent for these dissenters 'gainst whom His 
Majesty has sworn all temporal enmity in the 
hope of winning eternal reward? 

Sandys: His Majesty may be reached in 
divers ways. {Aside to Southampton.) 

Southampton: {Aloud) Marvelous! A 
haven in America for the harried of Church 
and State. Will wonders never cease ! Sandys, 
thou art the master of magic, Prospero, of 
whom Shakespeare muttered when thou didst 
speak of witchcraft, sorcery, and the like. 



The Birth of America 23 

Thine is the political magic that must create a 
new order. 

{Manservant announces visitor.) 
{Enter Stephen Hopkins.) 

Sandys: Here's Master Stephen Hopkins — 
all at once a survivor of the tempest, a mes- 
senger from Virginia, and a friend to Master 
Brewster. 

Hopkins: My Lords, I am returned from 
Virginia, not because of sufferings there nor 
fear of the fevers which cramp the settlers in 
the lowlands of the coast. Rather do I see 
Opportunity in America and would carry news 
and fresh hope to my fellow-countrymen in the 
Netherlands. 

Southampton: Didst thou not in an excess 
of zeal incite revolution in Bermuda? 

Hopkins: True, my Lord, but the sincerity 
of my purpose and the frank confession of my 
error won for me the intercession of both the 
Admiral and the Governor and procured me not 
mere pardon but their good will and favor. 

Sandys: I believe thee, Master Hopkins. I 
believe in the great purpose and fine courage of 
thy fellow-Brownists now in exile for their faith 
in the Netherlands. Here are private letters 
to Brewster, Bradford, and thy worthy pastor. 



24 The Birth of America 

John Robinson, We may seem to differ in our 
tenets, but, like my brother of Scrooby Manor, 
I am out of patience with those in State or 
Church who seek by force to fit opinion in a 
single iron mould. 

Hopkins: Thy brother hast been most kind to 
those who have barely 'scaped the 

Sandys: Beware thy speech — even walls 
have ears at times. I am prepared to suffer 
much for the faith that's in me, but I would not 
so unduly. I would be useful to our cause 
whilst I may. 

Hopkins: I hope to take passage for Hol- 
land within the week. {Moves to go through 
door by which he entered.) 

Sandys: Nay, take this door and pass not 
near yonder arch. A Spanish wolf in English 
wool awaits thy coming and wouldst know thy 
mission here. Godspeed thy journey. 
{Exit Hopkins.) 

Southampton: My thoughts are fixed upon 
our gifted Shakespeare. Thy word of caution 
was not lost. 

Sandys: Thou thyself shouldst be the first 
to recall that fateful February when his play 
on our Second Richard caused the great Eliza- 
beth. . . . 



The Birth of America 25 

Southampton: ... In her declining years, 
surrounded, flattered, and deceived as she then 
was by a group of absolutists who did lead her 
to betray her earlier and better self. 

Sandys: The Court party denounced the play 
as teaching that authority lies with the body 
politic and that royalty is responsible to the 
people. 

Southampton: Yes, I was condemned to the 
Tower; and then, two years later, thou sentest 
me word of thy hopes of the new king and of 
thy journey to greet him at Scotland's border 
to bring him hence to London Town. But these 
are harrowing memories. I must be hence. 
Soon or late our Royal Master will learn the 
truth and move against our London Company. 
We have those in our ranks who are not of our 
way of thinking. (Exit.) 

Sandys: (Turns to window facing arch — is 
silent a moment. Enter Lady Sandys quietly 
from side. Hands Sir Edwin a letter.) My 
love, I was thinking that just seven years have 
passed since I, all hopeful of better things, 
brought his Stuart Majesty through yonder 
gate, now arched to despotism and — ha 1 — re- 
inforced by Holy Writ! James has set upon 
the eastern side 



26 The Birth of America 

Lady Sandys: "There shall enter into the 
gates of this city {pause) kings and princes" 

Sandys: Thou knowest it well; but over 
against that perversion of a half-truth, I ever 
hold in mind the text of the James Towne pas- 
tor who preached in welcome of Governor 
Gates and our recent Charter. {Opens packet 
of papers.) Here it is {reads) : "Now the 
Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of 
thy country and from thy kindred, and from 
thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew 
thee. And I will make of thee a great nation 
. . . and in thee shall all families of the earth 
be blessed." 

Lady Sandys: That is a prophecy that will be 
fulfilled in God's good time, an we labour and 
pray for it. 

Sandys: The people of America will be free 
whilst we are half in bondage. They will have 
free assemblies whilst we still suffer grievous 
wrongs. But the torch of liberty which we shall 
light in the New World will serve to guide our 
posterity here — for in AMERICA "shall all 
the families of the earth be blessed." {Opens 
letter.) A letter from my Lord, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. {Reads.) It is as I 
had reason to suspect — he will not sanction the 



The Birth of America 27 

departure of the Brownists through England 
to the New World. Other means for this must, 
and will, be found. Wait, work, and hope. 
We are at the threshold of a new age. 

Curtain 

ACT II 

Scene I 

Open place in forest some thirty miles outside 
of Jamestown. 

Time: Late afternoon of July 28, 16 19, two 
days before meeting of First Legislative As- 
sembly at Jamestown and shortly after the first 
secret attacks upon the settlers since the mar- 
riage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe in 16 14. 

Curtain rises on the Christian Indian, 
Chanco, standing in an attitude of prayer to 
the Great White Spirit of the Palefaces, face 
upturned, hands widestretched, with palms 
towards the heavens. As he stands thus, an 
Indian girl steals through the gloom, glancing 
backwards as if fearing pursuit. She glides 
softly up to Chanco and touches his arm gently, 
still glancing backwards. Chanco stands stoic- 
ally, without moving. She speaks softly, calling 
his name. 



28 The Birth of America 

Chanco: {Turns and speaks curiously, ques- 
tioningly) Kanawha! 

Kanawha: Chanco prays to Paleface God. 
{Pointing up.) 

Chanco: The Paleface chiefs know and they 
teach me. 

Kanawha: I know Paleface teaching, too. 

Chanco: Powhatan, father of Matoaka, 
sees Matoaka in the sky. {Again pointing up- 
wards. ) 

Kanawha: But {shudders slightly) — Ope- 
chancanough — he, too, is great chief — he will 
kill. 

Chanco: Yes. 

Kanawha: {Slowly) Matoaka — Pocahon- 
tas — Rebecca. Kanawha would be like her,— 
follow the white man's God. 

Chanco: The father of Kanawha hates 
Paleface Christians. He will kill you. 

Kanawha: Listen to Kanawha. She has 
heard the old men's council, seen them shake 
their angry war clubs and cry "Kill the Paleface 
tribe" ! They have sent for Croatan. She 
will chant the war cry. 

Chanco: Chanco goes to the Paleface wig- 
wams. {Starts, but she detains him.) 

Kanawha: Wait! {Looking about her cau" 



The Birth of America 29 

tiously) Join in the camp-fire council, dance 
the death dance with the young men. Then 
when they forget, slip into the deep woods' 
shelter and go to the Paleface wigwams. 
{Tom-toms heard in the distance.) Here they 
meet beneath the oak trees. 

Kanawha slips quietly out and 
Chanco glides away in the shadows. 
Tom-toms grow louder; enter Indian 
squaws, bringing with them wood for 
camp-fire. They squat in circle close 
beside it. Enter PowHATAN and his 
brother, Opechancanough. Enter 
medicine men and others, hideously 
painted. Young men stand leaning 
against trees, scowling, arms crossed, 
looking down on the group of squt- 
ting squaws and medicine men. 
Enter aged Indian woman {equivalent 
to sorceress or witch). 
Old Woman: {Turning to Powhatan) 
Powhatan, great Chief Powhatan! {Turn- 
ing to Opechancanough) Opechancanough, 
strong to fight ! 

Powhatan and chorus of voices: 
Croatan! Croatan! 
Old Woman: You call me "Croatan," It is 



30 The Birth of America 

well. Paleface no more at Roanoke! The 
moon is dying I Let the Paleface follow the 
moon ! The Great Spirit of the Sun says Kill I 
Kill! KILL! 

Powhatan: Matoaka is dead in the Paleface 
wigwam beyond the Great Waters. What says 
Matoaka, my daughter, by Paleface men called 

Pocahontas ? — Matoaka 

Opechancanough: The Great Spirit has 
tasted Paleface blood! These are dead. 
{Makes circle around head and holds up all ten 
fingers.) No Paleface dogs! No moon I 
{Cries of assent.) 
Chant led hy Croatan, Kill! Kill! 
KILL! Tom-toms, war dance. Ope- 
chancanough passes by. Looks 
at Chanco, who shows no fear and 
returns gaze — immovable — stoically 
inscrutable. 
While dance and cries of "Kill!" go on, 
Chanco slips away. 
Curtain 

ACT II 

Scene II 
Jamestown, outside the house of Captain 
William Powell, a first settler, chief gunner at 



The Birth of America 31 

Jamestown, and a Burgess sitting for "James 
Citie." A low rustic fence marks boundry be- 
tween grounds of the house and the cleared 
land. A gate through which the wives of the 
settlers appear later. 

Time: Afternoon of July 29, 16 19, prior to 
formal gathering on the following day of the 
First Legislative Assembly in America. 

Curtain rises upon Captain Powell, Captain 
Francis West, Captain Samuel Jordan, Isaac 
Madison, John Jefferson, the Reverend Richard 
Buck, and John Pory, newly-arrived Secretary 
under Governor Yeardley and former member 
of Parliament from Bridgewater, England. 

Rev. Buck: Praise be to God! To-morrow's 
the day when the free men of these plantartions 
meet to make laws in their own right. 

West: 'Twill summon the first Parliament in 
the New World. 

Jefferson: Fortunately the first but happily 
not the last. I foresee as many Parliaments as 
there are settlements on these thousand miles of 
coast. 

West: True, word has just come that Brad- 
ford, Brewster, and the Separatists now in the 
Netherlands have a patent from our London 



32 The Birth of America 

Company and are preparing to take ship for 
America. 

Powell: For some place, it is said, this side 
of Hudson's river at whose island entrance the 
Dutch are now established. 

Jordan: Captain Argall should have dis- 
lodged the Dutchmen as he did the French in 
Acadie. Did not the great Cabot lay good 
claim to all this coast in the name of England? 
But what of these Separatists? 

Jefferson: 'Tis rumored that Samuel Sandys 
of Scrooby Manor saw them safe from Eng- 
land and helped them on to Holland. 

Jordan: And now Sir Edwin Sandys helps 
them on to us! I like them not. They'll stir 
up strife. 

Jefferson: Shame on thy speech, Captain 
Jordan. Hast thou not caught the noble spirit 
of Sir Edwin and the Founders of our New 
Britannia? Wouldst thou, in one breath, praise 
him for the sacrifice of his private means — nay, 
for risking life itself — on behalf of our liberty; 
and then decry him for aiding these most excel- 
lent exiled Englishmen to a home in our yet 
untrammeled world? 

Jordan: They teach heretical doctrines and 
swear no allegiance to the Church, 



The Birth of America 33 

West: We owe no blind obedience to king or 
bishop here. America is large enough to shelter 
men of all beliefs, if they be but good citizens 
and strive for the public weal. 

Powell: I feel that the spirit of thy father, 
the good Lord De La Warr, is with us in thee, 
his noble son. 

Jefferson: Lord De La Warr saved the col- 
ony when hope seemed lost. I heard the news 
nine years since this next September from Sir 
Edwin Sandys himself. ( Turning to Rev. 
Buck.) He showed me also the text of thy 
sermon and thy prophecy that "in America shall 
all the nations of the earth be blessed." 

Madison: In America we shall be free to 
speak our minds. The King will not prorogue 
our Parliament here, albeit His Majesty has 
called no Parliament in England for these many 
years. 

Jordan: But the King's governor will, if the 
King so commands. 

Madison: An we pay his salary, he will be 
circumspect enough upon reporting to the King, 
seeing that he is beholden to us for his wages. 
{Expressions of approval.) 

Jefferson: The Spanish Gondomar, suc- 
cessor to Zuniga, has reported to the King that 



34 The Birth of America 

the London Company has ever been a "Semi- 
nary for sedition." I fear for the noble Sandys. 
His writings have been publicly burned and he 
is threatened with confinement in the Tower. 

West: Our Governor Yeardley, who is now 
given power to do that which Sandys has la- 
bored for from the beginning, is one of us and 
has an interest in this plantation. 

Rev. Buck: Where a man's treasure is, there 
will his heart be also. 

{Enter John Rolfe, Nathaniel 
Powell, and Ensign Rossingham.) 

Here are further representatives of the out- 
lying plantations — Burgesses gathered from 
far and near for our great Assembly. Here's 
Master Rolfe {turning to Pory) whose mar- 
riage with the Princess Pocahontas has saved 
us from the deadly enmity of the great chief 
Powhatan. {Turning to Rolfe) Our honor- 
able Secretary Pory, sometime member of 
Parliament from Bridgewater, who has been 
asked to preside over the Burgesses on the mor- 
row. (7^0 Pory) And here is Captain Na- 
thaniel Powell, who, with Admiral Newport, 
explored the Bay of Chesapeake to its farthest 
limits — and Ensign Rossingham, nephew of our 
noble Governor. 



The Birth of America 35 

Pory: I myself was present when the Prin- 
cess Pocahontas came to Court. (Turning to 
Captain West) As "Lady Rebecca," she was 
presented to the Queen by thy mother, Lady 
De La Warr. 

Rev. Buck: Rebecca was her baptismal name. 
{Enter Captain John Martin, of 
Martin's Brandon.) 

Rev. Buck: {To Secretary Pory) Greet- 
ings to Captain John Martin of Martin's Bran- 
don, master of ordnance — a captain under 
Drake on many seas, and the settler who has 
done most of all to extend the bounds of our 
colony. 

Martin: {Bluntly) What's this I hear is pro- 
posed against the Burgesses from Brandon? 

West: 'Tis said that they will be denied their 
seats unless they and thou yield special claims 
for indulgences not granted to the other planta- 
tions, 

Martin: I hold my patent for my service 
done, which no new or late comer can merit or 
challenge. I came with the first supply. I have 
borne the burden and heat of the day. Shall I 
now be deprived of that which is mine own? 

Jefferson: Special privilege may be granted 
to no one in perpetuity. We deny only that 



36 The Birth of America 

single claim of privilege and exemption from 
future dues. All other rewards thou shouldst 
have — and they are justly merited. 

Martin: By the soul of the mighty Drake! 
I'll carry this matter before the London Com- 
pany and mayhap His Majesty himself. I go 
to see the Governor. {In going of to left, 
meets middle-aged soldier.) 

Soldier: Sir, it's meself could get no worrk 
in the auld countrie, so I've me bag and baggage 
here in me own person. Oi was a soldier in the 
Low Countrie. 

Martin: I, too, fought the Spaniard in the 
Netherlands. 

Soldier: Oi knew ye. Captain, so soon as Oi 
laid me eyn upon ye ! Is it that 

Martin: Oh, ha 1 ha I ha I Bless my stars! 
As I live, 'tis Patrick Gookin of County Cork ! 
How camest thou here? 

Gookin: Oi come from Newce's Town, 
County Cork, by order of Sir William Newce. 
{Hands Martin a note.) 

Martin: {Hums over beginning — reads 
aloud principal point of interest) Sir William 
says : "Wholly upon my own adventure, I pur- 
pose sending to Virginia eighty to one hundred 



The Birth of America 37 

settlers. With them will be shipped some forty 
young cattle, of which news has reached us there 
is great need in America. I am promised a set- 
tlement at a place which shall be called New 
Porte Newce in Virginia. Moreover, your 
noble Governor has writ that he has 'conceived 
great hope if this Irish plantation prosper that 
from Ireland great multitude of people, both 
high and low, will be like to come hither.' " 

Good! come with me. Thou shalt make thy 
home at Martin's Brandon. Virginia is hous- 
ing men of many faiths — common citizens in a 
common cause and comrades-at-arms in a com- 
mon danger. Again, welcome. We are free 
men here. 

Gookin: An' didst ye not say ye would be 
seeing of the Governor? 

Martin : Oh ! I had forgot. I'll see him on 
the morrow, man. Come, we'll have a bit of 
Dutch ale together. 

{Makes sailor-sign of drinking grog. 
Gookin delighted. Exeunt on side 
opposite to original direction.) 

Jefferson: Our Captain Martin's an English- 
man of whom we may be proud. He has won 
bountiful Success out of black Despair; but in 
this matter of privilege, the Burgesses will rule 



38 The Birth of America 

— not the Governor — nor even the King him- 
self. 

Pory: How, man, dost dare defy His 
Majesty? 

Jefferson: His Majesty has attempted no in- 
justice in this matter. Hast thou read Master 
Shakespeare's play on King Richard? Dost 
think James will follow in Richard's footsteps, 
to be succeeded by another Henry? This mat- 
ter 

Rev. Buck: Of present interest now are 

the great acts proposed for the morrow. I 
have received amplest assurances that Church 
attendance will be carefully guarded. 

Madison: Likewise, there will be laws en- 
acted against excess in apparel. Tobacco has 
yielded us of late so great returns that some 
upstart unthrifts here would outgroom attend- 
ants at His Majesty's Court! There is yet seri- 
ous business iri taming this great wilderness. 

William Powell: And keeping watch on red 
men, who may seem peaceable now, but are 
ever fit for stratagem and sudden death 

Jordan: Opechancanough has made over- 
much excuse, and, to my mind, a false show of 
penitence for the ten foul murders done this 
past springtime. 



The Birth of America 39 

Powell: Our supplies of powder ran short, 
Master Pory. The naturals no longer heard 
the ring of our fowling pieces. They believed 
our guns were "sick," as are early settlers with 
the ague and fever of the lowlands. That made 
them bold. 

Jordan: Their penitence is Opechanca- 
nough's pretense. They do not try to appre- 
hend the murderers. 

West: It is said their fathers surprised De 
Ayllon and three hundred Spaniards on this 
very coast. We face Indian attacks from 
within and Spanish invasion from without — 
forts on the Chesapeake and stockades against 
the wilderness. 

Powell: Old Argall hanged, sans judge and 
jury, some seven of these Spanish spies, as an 
ensample to the rest. 

Rev. Buck: Brethren and Christians all, 
should we not forget the offenses of certain un- 
tutored and perchance wronged salvages? Are 
we not gaining new converts? Powhatan him- 
self has heard me in most solemn fashion, and 
a handsome tithe of our increasing means has 
been given for the education of all these natu- 
rals. To which monies also have been added 
from followers of Christ across the sea; and, 



40 The Birth of America 

good men, dying, have willed a share of their 
estates for the conversion of the heathen. 

West: On the morrow, laws will be proposed 
to set aside public lands for a free school and a 
college at Henricus. 

Jefferson: These acts will pass. A majority 
of the Burgesses favor them. Ten thousand 
acres of land will be set aside for this noble end. 

Rev. Buck: In England, Master George 
Thorpe has taken to himself an Indian boy and 
showed him how to read and write. What he 
has done with this one natural, he purposes to 
do with many others. He will join us in the 
next supply. 

Enter Chanco {Indian convert) — in 
background — accompanied by Indian 
group. Beckons to Captain West 
and John Rolfe. They confer at 
distance. 

Rev. Buck: {Pointing to group) There are 
certain of our Christian converts. Master Pory. 
Chanco, their leader, is our near neighbor; 
others are from the East Shore of Virginia 
across the Bay. They are the subjects of De- 
bedeavon, called by us "The Laughing King". 
He and his live apart from the Powhatans 



The Birth of America 41 



amidst such plentiful supplies of fish and fowl 
as no other land has seen the like. 

Madison: The mild climate and bountiful 
soil makes for milder natures there. 

Rev. Buck: Wild and strong they are, yet not 
given wholly over to savage customs and still 
more savage hates. On our part, we have not 
always dealt justly with these naturals, and 
Debedeavon has attended court for redress of 
the grievances of his people. 

Jefferson: Happily, he was aided by worthy 
counsel and got amends. 

Rev. Buck: Furthermore, he pays the Powha- 
tans tribute to live in peace and enjoy the bounty 
of his pleasant estate. 

Pory: Forsooth, I would be frank with them 
— and all of you. I do not like these salvages. 
They move about with stealthy steps and hate- 
ful looks. But yesterday it seemed to me that 
sundry of your Master Rolfe's redskinned kins- 
men eyed this baldness above my brow with 
marked disfavor! Without doubt they thought 
my scalp and skull would prove the more diffi- 
cult to divorce on this account. For if, per- 
chance, some damnable devil had to hasten his 
bloody custom, his clutching fingers would find 



42 The Birth of America 

no forelock ready to relieve me of mine proper 
toppiece ! 

{Laughter from the elder settlers) 

Jefferson: Now I perceive why it was thou 
changest thy goodly quarters from high ground 
up the river to humbler but safer ground near 
Powell's ordnance 

{More laughter) 

Pory: As accredited minister of the realm, 
I've been in France, Italy, and in Greece. In 
Constantinople I was given up for lost, where 
messages on my person borne were worth a 
patriotic killing to any band of worthy assassins, 
yet never before have I felt myself in such 
jeopardy of my life. Why, one recent night in 
that upper dwelling, I chanced to rouse from 
sleep and at the window came I suddenly upon 
a redskin. It was in the ghost-like darkness 
of a spent moon. Immovable he seemed; yet, 
gliding immovable-like, he vanished into thin 
air! I'd sooner front some twenty Turks in a 
street at midnight than walk abroad by day 
whilst knowing that one such redskin lives in 
yonder forest 1 

{Much show of enjoyment by all, except 
Captain Powell. The latter seems 
preoccupied and has frequently glanced 



The Birth of America 43 

at the group containing Chanco, West 
and Rolfe) 
Laugh, on, if you willl But commend me to 
your jolly Debedeavon and a long or longer 
life on the Eastern Shore ! for, by the scalpel 1 
Death lurks here by day, and at night looks in 
the window 1 Was it not Will Shakespeare who 
made Caesar say that, "Cowards die many times 
before their death"? But also even mighty 
Caesar said: 

**Let me have men about me that are fat. 
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' 
nights." 
In double sooth, I swear these naturals are 
twice as lean and hungry as any Cassius, and 
withal twenty times as numerous. One may 
but hope that they do not think as much ! 

{Exit Indian group and Rolfe and 
West earnestly talking) 
Rev. Buck: I will join these converts and 
wish them Godspeed in their mission. 
Jefferson: I would go with thee. 
Rev. Buck: Come. (Exeunt Rev. Buck 
and Jefferson.) 

Powell: Our worthy minister is far too trust- 
ful of these salvages. I tell him and all alike 
that Opechancanough has foul murder in his 



44 The Birth of America 

heart. He is an arch-conspirator. Ke thinks 
in terms of all of us to compass the complete 
extermination of this colony as that at Roanoke 
where naught remained but that one word 
Croatan. 

{Enter from house in background Mis- 
tresses Cicely Jordan and Mary 
Madison) 
Ho ! Here's Mistress Cicely Jordan and Mis- 
tress Madison. 

Mistress Jordan: {Addressing Pory) Again 
we bid thee welcome to Virgina, Master Secre- 
tary. 

Madison: When these twain meet together 
we know that much ground has been covered 
and all matters disposed of. 

Pory : And always rightly 1 

Mistress Jordan: Quite knightly said, Sir 
Secretary. 

Mistress Madison: Now, what was all that 
merriment about? 

Mistress Jordan: I know it was some brutal 
jest over the foibles of us poor women. 

Pory : Our best thoughts are ever fixed upon 
the excellencies of the fair sex. Mistress Jordan. 

Jordan: I am loath to be a seeming-contrary 
witness, but our merry thoughts were at Secre- 



The Birth of America 45 

tary Pory's expense. He chanced to see what 
we see daily — or nightly, for that matter — a 
prowling Indian, when our watchdogs warn 
them not away. 

Mistress Madison: {Aside and suddenly be- 
come serious) Many of our best dogs have 
strangely died of late. 

Mistress Jordan: Nay, the talk was not all 
at the expense of our guest. I overheard it 
said that the Burgesses will, forsooth, tax our 
appearance, meaning our apparel, in accord 
with its respective bravery. To illustrate : a 
man's doublet, or a woman's bodice. 

Jordan: A bachelor is taxed but once by that 
unequal measure, a benedict four times. 

Powell: Now how dost thou make that out, 
friend Jordan? 

Jordan: For every frill a married man puts 
upon his apparel, his wife must needs add three 
to hers. 

Mistress Jordan: Fie upon thee, Samuel, 
Thy many plants have grown so great that they 
have rooted out my roses. Money may not grow 
on trees, but, in America, it lies in leaves and 
leaves and yet more leaves I 

Jordan: And hard and honest labor! 

Pory: By your leave or leaves, ladies, your 



46 The Birth of America 

good health and a wealthy world of good Vir- 
ginia weed! {Proposes toast.) I fancy I am just 
beginning to forget yonder wilderness and its 
villainous dark-skinned denizens. 

{Indian passes in background, catching 
eye of Secretary Pory) 

Mistress Jordan: Tell us the news from 
Court and London Town and what may now be 
the fashions there. 

Pory: Well, for one thing, hast thou read 
His Majesty's pamphlet, "A Counterblast 
Against Tobacco," duly imprinted in London 
for the guidance of His Majesty's loyal sub- 
jects? 

Jordan: Did he decry its use? 

Pory: Assuredly he did. His Majesty at- 
tempted it, and forthwith sent for a doctor of 
physic. Citizens of Virginia, I would not stir 
you up to mutiny and rage, but His Majesty 
has termed your chiefest source of revenue a 
"most detestable weed" with "vile" fumes — 

Jordan: Why, good Queen Bess smoked it 
and at once pronounced it "a vegetable of singu- 
lar strength and power." 

Pory: True, but Her Majesty was a woman, 
and ably disguised her feelings in the matter. 
Having pronounced her august opinion, she dis- 



The Birth of America 47 

erectly, and with marked fortitude, retired. I 
heard the rest from a maid of honor at the 
Court. 

Mistress Madison: Now, is this the sum and 
finish of all thy knightly speeches, Master 
Pory? 

Pory: Pray, do me no injustice. Mistress 
Madison. I fear thou dost but draw unwar- 
ranted conclusions from my manner of awkward 
speech. I cast no reflections, only I do most 
stoutly maintain that woman is the braver sex. 
I would but stress the point, for I know that 
since the other night in yonder house, courage 
is not my strong suit; therefore would I praise 
it most in others. 

{Noise of drums and martial music) 

Mistress Jordan : Oh I There go the Gover- 
nor and his Council, with a brave array of hal- 
berdiers ! Come ! Let's go see what may be 
seenl {All start) 

Pory: {Loath to move, aside) : A weari- 
some, noisy fan-fare this I I'll stay and smoke 
it out. 

{Indian appears in background.) 

No, I'll join the rest; {Aloud) : 

"The man that hath no music in him- 
self, 



48 The Birth of America 

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet 

sounds, 
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and 
spoils" ! 
Mistress Jordan: {To Pory) A fine senti- 
ment ! Master Pory. We'll yet make of thee a 
good Virginia settler. Thou wilt learn to like 
our company here. 

Pory: {Looks behind him) Have I my way, 
I'll never separate myself from it! 
Exeunt all. 
{Rev. Richard BuciC and John Jef- 
ferson re-enter together from direc- 
tion opposite to those going out) 

Rev. Buck: Chanco must be wrong. The 
very fervor of his conversion and his excess of 
zeal for our faith misleads him. I cannot be- 
lieve so ill of these benighted children of the 
forest. They do not plan our complete exter- 
mination here. We shall establish schools for 
them, buy land of them, and trade with them. 

J ef arson: The untutored savage apprehends 
little of our religious form and ceremony and 
naught as yet of political liberty, self-control, 
and self-government. {With great fervor) : 
But to-morrow the General Assembly of Vir- 



The Birth of America 49 

ginia will make history that shall be echoed and 
re-echoed throughout the world. To-morrow 
we light the torch of Liberty, and the teeming 
millions of all lands will see it and be glad. For 
some it will be a beacon to guide their footsteps 
hither, and the first to come will be our own 
exiled Englishmen in the Netherlands; others 
in the Old World will be inspired to emulate 
this example and free themselves from tyranny. 
Here let us scotch autocracy forever, and may 
our watchword be — Sic Semper Tyrannis. 
America for the free. 

Curtain 

ACT III 

Scene I 

Cabin of Mayflower. Time : Afternoon of 
November 20, (N.S.) 1620. 

Curtain rises on William Bradford, seated 
at table writing. Mistress Bradford near at 
hand apparently busy in expectation of a meet- 
ing. Spinning wheel, etc. Knock at door of 
cabin. Mistress Bradford goes to door and 
opens slightly. 

Bradford: {Looking up from work) Who's 
there ? 



50 The Birth of America 

Mistress Bradford: 'Tis Mistress Elizabeth 
Hopkins and Priscilla Mullens, come to ask if 
they may be useful here. I have told them thou 
wast at thy work in preparation for special 
counselling on our future course. 

Bradford: My report is finished. Bid them 
enter. 

{Enter Mistress Hopkins and Pris- 
cilla Mullens) 

Priscilla, my child, how fares thy father after 
his chill and long exposure to the storm? 

Priscilla!: Praise be to God, he is improved 
and hopes to be upon his feet again. 

Bradford: {To Mistress Hopkins) Hast 
thy husband returned with the party of explora- 
tion? I put much faith in his service to us here. 
He has had rare experience of shipwreck at sea ; 
and, at James Towne, did also learn some 
knowledge of this new country. 

Mistress Hopkins: I have seen them leaving 
the shore and pulling hard for the ship. I had 
feared for their safety. They have been gone 
since the early dawn of yesterday. 

{Enter John Carver, John Alden, 
and Edward Winslow) 

Bradford: You are in proper time. Master 
Carver. {To John Alden) I know that our 



The Birth of America 51 

modest and ever faithful John Alden comes to 
report the completion of repairs on our wrecked 
boat, else he would not now be present. 

John Alden: {Who has not failed to see P^IS- 
CILLA — at a distance — under some embarrass- 
ment) It is — that is — it is very nearly so. Mas- 
ter Carver asked me in. 

(Bradford smiles slightly and looks in- 
quiringly at WiNSLOW) 

Carver: Winslow did not go with the rest. 
With William Mullens he has suffered greatly 
from last Friday's storm and the overturning 
of the boat. 

Mistress Bradford: We have been on board 
this ship three-score days and more. I trust 
that the time to land be not much longer de- 
layed. Not a few have been rendered ill from 
our cramped quarters here. 

Winslow: If our stormy voyage to these 
shores be, as termed by Elder Brewster, "one 
inch of hell," it was, in truth, a most slow inch 
in passing. Assuredly, I'll not be the first to 
offer to retrace it ! 

Mistress Bradford: The Master of the May- 
flower himself declared he ne'er has seen a more 
furious ocean. 

Bradford: A firm and stable earth is our 



52 The Birth of America 

proper element. We need not marvel at our 
long disquietude, now happily past; we have 
in the sayings of Seneca, sage of ancient Rome, 
that he was "much affected" with sailing a few 
leagues off the coast of Italy. 

{Enter Miles Standish, Elder 
Brewster and Stephen Hopkins) 

Carver: Here at last are Captain Standish, 
Elder Brewster, and our experienced Master 
Hopkins. Are the others returned safe to the 
Mayflower? 

Standish: All are returned and are busy with 
their several duties ere night o'ertake them. 

{Stage business in foregoing as to the 
women, — and especially Priscilla 
Mullens and John Alden) 

Mistress Bradford: {To Priscilla Mul- 
lens and Elizabeth Hopkins) Come, let us 
leave the men to counsel upon certain weighty 
matters. May God guide and guard their de- 
liberations. 

{Exeunt women) 

Standish: The Captain has declared his un- 
shakable decision that the winter gales be too 
fresh and perilous to essay a landing in Virginia. 



The Birth of America 53 

Carver: But the patent of the London Com- 
pany, which was won for us from His Majesty 
through the long and patient intercession of 
our chiefest patron, the noble Sandys, entitles 
us to land many leagues to the south. Shall we 
go beyond and above this title, and thus give 
further basis for complaint to his enemies at the 
Court and in the Company? 

Bradford: This is the coast of New Britannia 
or New England, named by Captain Smith. 
From the master of a passing fishing-smack re- 
turning from the great north shoals, we learned 
to-day that Sandys is deposed from leadership 
in the Company by order of the King. 

Hopkins: His Majesty had writ the Com- 
pany before their fall elections a letter of in- 
structions, to wit: "Choose the devil, if you will, 
but not Sir Edwin Sandys." 

Brewster: Is it not understood amongst the 
leaders of this our enterprise that the more we 
make a public show of thanks to our friends in 
the London Company, the more we hurt their 
cause and influence with the King? His Ma- 
jesty has already taken sharp offense in that the 
Company has granted freedom to the body poli- 
tic at James Towne. His threat to dissolve 



54 The Birth of America 

the Company may be turned to immediate 
action. 

Carver: If praise be given for this our haz- 
ardous undertaking, let it not be given first to 
any man or group of men. Let glory and honor 
be given to the Lord Almighty. Man is but the 
humble instrument of His Holy Will. 
{Solemn assent from all) 

Hopkins: Captain Smith has been inform- 
ing against the Company and his former 
associates at James Towne. He has been ap- 
pointed the chief licensed historian of His Ma- 
jesty for the Plantations in Virginia. His 
"True Relation" is indeed a brave tale in which 
he falsely glorifies himself whilst he libels those 
who have opposed the absolute and sovereign 
rule of the King. 

Bradford: Yet, withal, he is a great adven- 
turer, than whom there has been no bolder. I 
do not despair of him, but rather hope the Lord 
will show him the error of his ways ! 

Brewster: He writ letters to Pastor Robin- 
son offering to lead and guide us in the New 
World. But of a certainty he is not of our way 
of thought or behavior. We were warned of 
him by Sir Edwin, whose highest aim he would 
betray. 



The Birth of America 55 

Hopkins : Adventurous he is, but jealous of all 
authority save his own or the King's, — a veri- 
table trouble-maker. At James Towne he was 
landed first in chains under accusation of incit- 
ing mutiny with the crew of the Sarah Constant, 
under Newport's command. His secret ap- 
pointment to the first Council of the Colony by 
the King saved him from condemnation and 
death. Lastly, he left James Towne under in- 
dictment of attempt to betray to the Indians 
Captain Francis West, the gallant son of the 
good Lord De La Warr. 

Bradford: The charges have, however, not 
been proved. 

Carver: They were not pressed to the end. 
Captain Smith has the ear of the King. Now, 
seeing that his offer of leadership was refused, 
no doubt he will abuse us also to His Majesty 
and in his writings yet to be. 

Brewster: We are well rid of him. May the 
Lord have mercy upon his soul. 

Bradford: Without doubt, Southampton 
will be chosen to the place so long and 
nobly held by Sandys in the London Company. 
Though not so wise nor constant, he is as true 
a friend of freedom as Sir Edwin. Withal it 



56 The Birth of America 

is said he is to be elected a member of the 
Council for New England. 

Brewster: The last is timely news and well 
said. 

Standish: We have tarried all too long on 
this coast without decision made. There are 
those with us who would, as they say, "take 
their liberty" ; since we appear to lack authority 
in New England. 

Bradford: Among those who came aboard 
at old Plymouth are some not altogether tem- 
pered to godliness. They were at the last 
shuffled in upon us. Therefore, let us act at 
once, and action here is as good as action yon- 
der. Great enterprises must be met with an- 
swerable courages. By your instructions, I have 
prepared, in part, a compact of Government. 

Brewster: This is a rock-bound coast of 
weather-beaten face, and, summer being done, 
all things now present a wild and savage hue. 
But is there not advantage here? 'Tis certain 
that all of those at James Towne are not like 
Samuel Sandys of Scrooby Manor, nor Master 
Jefferson, Sir Edwin's friend. Some would not 
welcome us as neighbors there. 

Hopkins: But His Majesty — 

Carver: Albeit the King caused the Dutch, 



The Birth of America 57 

his allies, to stop our printing press at Leyden, 
His Majesty has promised the London-Virginia 
Company not to molest us in America, — not- 
withstanding which, if there should afterwards 
be a purpose to wrong us, though we had a seal 
as broad as the house floor, there would be 
means enough found to recall or reverse it. We 
must rest herein on God's Providence. 

Brewster: Let us hear and discuss the terms 
of our compact of government. A compact, if 
wisely made, will quiet certain discontents and 
murmurings which arise among some and mutin- 
ous speeches and carriages in others. Such an 
act by us done might be as firm as any patent 
of King or Company; and, in some respects, 
more sure. 

Bradford: Having in good faith clave to- 
gether through many and sore trials, we may 
hope to win the good-will of all by a just and 
equal carriage in matters affecting first, our- 
selves, secondly, the strangers shuffled in upon 
us, and thirdly, the naturals in yonder wilder- 
ness. 

( Takes up paper from off the table and 
reads) : 
Therefore, let us, having undertaken for the 
glory of God, and advancement of the Christian 



The Birth of America 



faith, and honor of our King and Country, a 
voyage to plant the first colony in the northern 
parts of Virginia, do covenent and combine our- 
selves together into a civil body politic, for our 
better ordering and preservation and further- 
ance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue 
hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just 
and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, 
and offices, from time to time, as shall be 
thought most meet and covenient for the gen^ 
eral good of the Colony, unto which we promise 
all due submission and obedience. 

Hopkins: Knowledge of the charters drawn 
up for the signature of the King on behalf of 
our plantations in South Virginia show that we 
should have both beginning and end of our 
patent phrased in the legal language of the 
Court. 

Bradford: I have that language here. We 
would open this document with certain formal 
words which do always encumber the themes of 
the doctors in the law. Thus: "In the name of 
God, Amen. We whose names are under writ- 
ten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign 
Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of 
Great Britain, France, and Ireland king, de- 
fender of the faith, etc." The closing would 



The Birth of America 59 

be like unto the beginning. Thus: "In witness 
whereof we have hereunder subscribed our 
names at Cap-Codd the 1 1 of November, in 
the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, 
King James, of England, France, and Ireland 
the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. 
Anno Dom. 1620." Are we now prepared 
to sign ? 

{Assent general) 

Brewster: And if we do, we shall prepare to 
make a landing on the morrow. Captain Stand- 
ish, are all things ready? 

Standish: The neighboring coast has been ex- 
plored for many miles up and down and not a 
few inland. We shall throw out guards and 
make our debarkation and landing sure. 

Bradford: Captain Standish, send for the 
other men of our Company. We must sign 
our covenant and choose our leader here. 

Brewster: Let us give all due diligence to 
make our calling and election sure; for if we 
do these things, we shall never fail. 
{Others file in) 



Curtain 



6o The Birth of America 

ACT III 

Scene II 

{Tableau) 
Curtain rises upon Pilgrims — men and wo- 
men — grouped as in famous Pilgrim picture. 
Door of cabin open {or other stage effect to 
give idea of well-known portrayal of historic 
landing). Chorus in background singing Pil- 
grim hymn. 

{A chorus should sing at close of each 
act songs appropriate to the time and 
occasion. ) 



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